Aidenwode Vale
Tucked away in a discreet little valley between Mount Korn and Mount Abrahm is a little misty patch of land of little worth since the mines ran dry, only known for its abundance of mushrooms and oddly free standing mountain-like hill, called Aidenwode Vale. With just as many odd myths and legends as any isolated community, Aidenwode holds more than first meets the eye if, like the patron saint and name sake of the vale, you are willing to solve the mystery. Locations within the Vale Lonnhil ' 'The Lone Hill ' 'The Lome Wood Monastary ' 'The Mines ' 'The Wodemere ' 'Castle Tain ' 'St. Viktor's Church ' 'Lome Wood ' 'Tain Wood ' 'History of Aidenwode Vale During the great hundred year reign of dragons known as the Dragon Rage Wars, one particularly old and powerful dragon famed for spawning many of the great evil reds of our time (such as Andragar) came to the centre of troubled Hilsyren and took slaves to a valley with a gold coloured mountain that it sensed great wealth within. There were many attempts to slay Thyrokovar (the “She Devil”) but all failed. For decades, she depleted all the gold of Korn Mountain and moved her slaves onto mass excavation of near worthless (in her eyes) copper. The people of the vale learned to survive under her rule, with rumours of monthly sacrifices of maidens being common but unfounded. Near the last years of the Dragon Rage Wars, after the land had perfected ways of slaying the evil beasts with the help of the new nobles of Eyshabreen, one brave paladin by the name of Jaelist of Antiok took on the dragon with a magic blade known only as the Hawk Sword and could apparently “fight the dragon at her level”, and killed her fleeing to the south coast. By this time the slaves of ‘Korn Valley’ had settled and their work here helped in the recovery of the land, and so they stayed, only the village's tavern a reminder of the dragons occupation in time. The paladin Jaelist Tain was asked to become Lord of the Valley but, claiming he had greater evils to face in the far off world, nominated his good hearted brother Andros Tain to take the role, which the people accepted. In this growing time of peace and freedom, the former slaves could now explore this mysterious valley and it was discovered that a peculiar hill, that held some superstition among the people, actually produced good growing soil that didn’t need to be crop rotated to yield a harvest every year, and so the Lone Hill farms were established. There was some animosity between the farmers and the people of the villages but there seemed to be no real reason for this. Soon Castle Tain was built upon the hills to the east known as the Jael Hills and the valley went into a time of relative quiet for twenty years with no trouble beyond the personal feuds between the people of the hill and the people of the plains. Some thirty years since the valley was freed from Thyrokovar the most important person to ever visit the valley arrived, Saint Aiden. In the recovery of the land, after the devastation of the dragons, the church were trying drastic methods to unite a land separated by a hundred years of torment. These overzealous actions led to the shame of the Vatic, the Sapphire Order, a sect of the church who used extreme measures to drive out the lingering ‘evil’ within its people. Thanks to many people, not in the least a young clerk of the churches citadel in Padomar city, named Aiden, the Order was abolished and its leader banished to the Woe Man’s Isle. It is said that Aiden surviving the actions of the Order was a miraculous act. For his part in uncovering the unseen evil, the young priest was sent to Korn Vale to settle claims of evil behaviour on the part of the people of the Lone Hill, hoping his keen skills of observation would uncover an evil that no magical divination could uncover. Well he did this by learning that the strange sightings and behaviour were caused by some rare and powerful hallucinogenic mushrooms that grew on the hill. Once he stopped the farmers from using them to eat any more the tensions finally ceased (but an animosity remains between those people to this day though it has never resulted in conflict again). Then, for reasons only known to himself, Aiden decided to stay in the valley and explore it. In his time here he uncovered a grisly mystery of eyes being stolen from people's sockets in and around the area of Castle Tain. It is believed that this was due to some sin the lord was partaking in involving the slavery of bugbears. The following summer was one of the hottest recorded in decades and a terrible plague to the people of the vale, one immune to all standard curative magic. The valley was to be cut off from the rest of the land when it is well believed that Aiden performed a miracle. After wandering the valley and speaking with the stones, he simply told the people of the valleys to drink of the river in the method they always did and within the next few days the plague never visited the valley again. What the people of the valley did suffer was a horrible vengeance attack by a massive bugbear tribe, one that would wipe them out without time to call for help. It is here that another miracle was performed when with a magic note of his station he made it so that not man, child or woman, building or farm and its animals could be seem by the invading army, it was if they were not there, walking right through, oblivious to them. This gave time for help from Lemnor and the tribe were defeated but remained an ever present enemy but one never to amass in such a number or foolishly attack the enchanted vale again. Hailed as a great and illustrious saviour of the Vale, he had great plans to build a school of training here for warriors and academics but one night without warning, he vanished. Many think he discovered enough secrets of enlightenment to ascend or that he was an angel but it is decreed by the church that for performing three great miracles he would be declared a saint and thus in time became the patron saint of the valley and its name sake, Aiden Vale to become Aidenwode over time with the reputation of the Wode Mere. It may have taken nearly a hundred years but with the reputation or some say blessing of Saint Aiden, the men of the vale grew good and strong and it was declared a St. Viktor School of Combat should be built here to train these strong boys in to warriors of Leoshire. Many of the great heroes of the War of the White Rose claimed to have trained here but despite that after the war with Eridor, fewer and fewer people came to the school and it was eventually abandoned. What did come to the valley though was a wandering monk of St. Tamarind on a spirit quest and found the valley from the north after wandering through the mountain to the north. Brother Loamus began to build a shrine in this place the Ethos had brought him for seven days before he realised other people lived in the valley. He decided it was his and his disciples duties to protect the people of this valley ever more and so the Loam Wood Monastery was build and remained ever more. Recent History In 764 the vale was visited by the scholar mage Elbryn, he took up residence in the scholary and conducted his research from there. In 767 the vale was enveloped into an unusually thick mist. As a not uncommon occurrence this was largely ignored; until complaints about missing mushroom shipments prompted Lord Blackdragon to have the situation investigated. All sent to investigate were lost and so Lord Blackdragon hired the magus Adalan Blacksparrow and an Eyshabreenian bard Balthier of Moliqu'n. In early 768 the mists around the vale solidified, defying any further attempts to enter, even blocking the river. The church, archavists and Lord Blackdragon's retinue all attempted to penetrate the barrier with no success. Then, after almost a month, the barrier collapsed and the truth of what had happened to the vale was revealed. Elbryn had delved too deep in his research and inadvertently activated a relic created by the ancient Grey elves. Embarrassed by his failures he fled deep into the vale in an attempt to rectify his mistake, matters had been exacerbated by the interference of the rogue wizard Kitty Starlight, rumour that the drow had become involved are typically viewed as little more than paranoia. Regardless the relic was succesfully de-activated through the efforts of the bard and magus, with help from those townspeople who had survived. The landscape of the vale had been drastically changed by these events, much of the vale is now a slowly drying marshland and the ancient Castle Tain had been destroyed by some side effect of the relic. The site was secured by the combined efforts of the church, archavists and Lord Blackdragon. Each group nominated a person to act in their interests within the vale. The church sent the paladin Tahvarra, now resident paladin of the vale, to construct a new chapel upon the Lonnhill from which to keep watch for further danger. The archavists installed Shiala Greenback as a permanent resident to watch over the remains of the relic. Meanwhile, Lord Blackdragon installed the newly knighted Sir Blacksparrow as the 'guardian of the vale' to act as his representative in matters pertaining to the relic and vale. The resolution of the problems within the vale was not without cost, the Pastor Father Ivarious and the Wizard Elbryn had both been killed by the rogue wizard Kitty. Many others died in a conflict with a band of bugbears or as a result of changes brought about by their isolation. However, with the problems quelled the vale is now returning to soemthing resembling normality, many of the residents have moved to different settlements but enough have returned that the village survives.Category:Location Category:Drorn Category:Hilsyren Category:Leoshire Category:Aidenwode Vale